2.6" Edmontosaurus Fossil Limb Bone Lance Creek FM Cretaceous Dinosaur WY COA
Location: Lance Creek Formation, Wyoming (Private Land Origin)
Weight: 1.6 Ounces
Fossil Dimensions: 2.6 Inches Long, 1.5 Inches Wide, 1.1 Inches Thick
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Edmontosaurus, meaning "lizard from Edmonton," is a hadrosaurid dinosaur species that lived during the Maastrichtian stage, the final interval of the Cretaceous period, approximately 71 to 65 million years ago. Adult individuals could reach lengths of up to nine meters, with some larger specimens extending to thirteen meters. Weighing around 3.5 tonnes, Edmontosaurus ranks among the largest known hadrosaurids.
Edmontosaurus could pass the toughest foodstuffs back and forth across its teeth with its muscular, daring pouches.
To fit so many teeth into its mouth, they were packed into tight "banks" of up to sixty rows, and new teeth continually grew to replace lost teeth, analogous to a new shark. The bones of the higher jaw would flex outwards as the lower jaw came up, so the mandible could grind against it. Typical food would have built-in conifer needles, seeds, and twigs, and these have been established in the body cavities of fossilized Edmontosaurus. It was a tree browser.
The 1908 discovery in Wyoming was particularly remarkable in that paleontologists actually recovered fossilized imprints of Edmontosaurus' skin. The skin drying very quickly and fixing its shape into the mud must have left an impression. It is from these limitations that we know the skin was scaly and leathery, and the thigh muscle was under the skin of the body. This would have given the feeling that the leg left its body at the knee, and the whole thigh was under the skin. This only contributes to its resemblance to a duck. It also had several tubercles (bumps) on its neck and down its back and tail.
Edmontosaurus primarily exhibited bipedal locomotion but was capable of quadrupedal movement. The forelimbs, though shorter than the hindlimbs, were sufficiently developed to support four-legged ambulation. The anterior limbs bore hooves on two digits along with weight-bearing pads comparable to those found in Camarasaurus. The posterior limbs featured two hooked toes. The osteological structure of the lower limbs indicates strong muscular attachments facilitating limb function. A downward curvature of the spine at the shoulder suggests a low browsing posture near the substrate. Despite robust limb anatomy, Edmontosaurus was likely slow-moving with limited defensive adaptations, relying heavily on acute sensory capabilities such as vision, audition, and olfaction to detect predatory threats early.
